The SCIROCCO "suspended sand” fluid bed is an effcient and high quality system for thermal cleaning of metal tools, such as paint hooks, paint booth grids, blow molding machine parts, hot-runner systems. The system provides very fast, safe and efficient cleaning of metal parts and tools. The Scirocco 'sand bed' is designed for high volume cleaning and applicable in paint stripping, plastic and grease or rubber removal.

Organic coatings are evaporated at a temperature of 420°-480°C and oxidised without combustion occurring. In a next step the sand gently rubs off the inorganic residue from the surface of the parts. The standard cleaning time is less than 1 hour, depending on the type and degree of contamination on the parts. During the cleaning cycle a second basket can be loaded, saving valuable time.

A ceramic filter and afterburner-installation ensure emissions complying with any stingent environmental legislation. A heat exchanger can be added for the reuse of energy. The Scirocco fuidized bed is an advanced thermal cleaning system for a perfect and environmentally friendly cleaning, designed and produced for 7/7 and 24/24h operation and available in standard and customized sizes.

Applications of fluidized bed cleaning system

paint stripping of hangers, skids, hooks, jigs, grids

plastic removal of filters, screws, breaker plates

cleaning of extruder dies, blow molding machine parts

hot runner manifold cleaning

removal of rubber, degreasing, resin removal

Fluidized bed working principle

Fluidized bed thermal cleaning system

The fluidized bed reactor contains calibrated sand. By the injection of air and gas, the sand is brought in a liquid-like state (suspended sand particles). The reactor is heated up to a homogeneous temperature in the range of 420–450°C. In this condition, the suspended silica sand becomes a powerful reactor, in which a fast and complex physiochemical process will evaporate and strongly oxidize any organic material.

Once the sand has reached the stand-by temperature, the parts to be cleaned, stacked in the carrier, can be submerged in the bubbling fluid bed sand reactor. In the first phase, which takes 10-20 minutes, light organic compounds and binders quickly evaporate due to the intense contact with the hot silica sand, and are substantially oxidized at relatively low temperature, to harmless inert gas.

Subsequently, the remaining heavier hydrocarbons are completly oxidized within the reactor, while the inert fraction of the contamination is blown out of the reactor as all organic binders have vanished. During the second phase, a light mechanical cleaning action caused by the bubbling sand will sustain the cleaning process. After an average of one hour, the two phase cleaning process is finished: the organic fraction is eliminated, and the inert fraction is blown out of the reactor with the exhaust gases.